Blade305

About Me

Henrik Welle,
Was born in Paderborn, Germany. From a young age, he developed an interest for the ocean and the animal world. After studying Marketing and Political economy for a few years in Hamburg, he pursued his true calling and realized, that he was happier in the water than on land.
Immediately after Discover Scuba, his passion for the oceans solidified. He left Germany and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
While in the US he perfected many diving specialties like; wreck diving, rescue diving, underwater photography and video, dive master, night dive, search and recovery, underwater communication, environmental research, Nitrox blending and rebreather.
He has over 400 recorded dives in several locations around the world. Some of those places include: Egypt, Maldives, Hawaii, Florida, Mexico, Venezuela, Bonaire, Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic and Bahamas.
Henrik's passion for the ocean is unabated and he continues to showcase the underwater world through his photography.

Hello everybody,I am looking for some feedback on one of my latest trips to paradise. The Maldives were absolute amazing. To bad my wife and I just missed the manta and wale shark season but nevertheless the trip was heaven.Here is one of my better pics and I would love to have some feedback from some fellow underwater photographers. My camera is a canon 50D with a Sea&Sea housing and all my macro is shot with a 60mm macro. Setting was on automatic. I am also adding a little story to the picture and the rest of the trip you can check out at http://hwelle.square...er-photography/ . Please let me know what you think.IMG_1877.jpg359.17KB50 downloads<h3 id="main-picture-description-title" style="font-weight: bold; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; color: rgb(30, 30, 30); ">"Being whipped"</h3>After an hour boat ride we finally reach our destination. It was pitch black by then; only the stars and the boat lights letting me see our location.

Open ocean and in the far distance the shadow of a deserted island.

For me, the night dive always starts with a funny feeling in my stomach when I have to jump into the black liquid, rolling underneath the boat.

After I got organized with all my lights and camera gear in the water, I start my descend. The funny feeling disappears and getting replaced with calmness and amazement. The colors are incredible vivid, from bright reds to neon yellows.

At a depth of about 40 feet, we just cruise along the reef wall. It feels like I am flying, looking down into the blackness and out of reach of the lights.

A while into the dive I come across something that looks like a steal wire, which spirals horizontally away from the reef wall into the darkness. When I got closer with my camera searchlight, I saw the full beauty of the wire coral.

They open up their tentacles to filter the water for food in the current and I set myself up for a shot.

It looked like illuminated barbed wire and it was not an easy task to get the right position. Controlling my buoyancy with my breathing, fighting the current with my big camera rig, getting the right angle and not being able to hold on to something, made this a bit difficult. Especially for a macro shot, I had to get very close, without touching and damaging this fragile creature.

After a few minutes repositioning myself, calming down my breathing and some test shots, I finally got this one.